This blog is written by a former Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Employee of the Year who worked in, managed and trained CRA's Collections Department staff for almost 11-years. inTAXicating provides information, support and solutions for everything CRA related, including but not limited to; Collections, Enforcement, Audits, Liens, Back-Filing, Assessments, Director's Liability, s160 Assessments, Taxpayer Relief, Voluntary Disclosure, Bankruptcies, Proposals, Mortgages and diagnosing and solving the most complex of tax problems. Contact us for a free consultation! Should you need to hire us, you will find us to be Experienced, Honest and On Your Side. Email us at info@intaxicating.ca, and let's begin solving your tax problems together!

Tag: debts

Since today is Thursday, I thought a Thursday Thirteen themed post might be a good change of pace!

Here are 13 things that should NEVER be said to someone with a tax problem, from someone who claims to want to help (or just your money).

Each quote below was an actual quote uttered by a tax solution representative or accountant to a prospective client in my presence.

Sit tight, and get ready to shake your head in disbelief…

13. “GST, HST, PST… They’re all the same.”

12. “CRA Collectors don’t care about you. They treat their clients like a ‘whack-a-mole’ game. You pop your head up and they smack you on the head with a hammer. We provide you with a helmet or advise you to stay underground until the game is over.”

10. “I can tell you for a fact that the Auditor General requires the CRA to close files, NOT collect money. The benchmark is 7-years. We can close your file in 7-years!”

9. “You’re just a little guy! Nobody cares about you.”

8. “If you tell the CRA anything you are shooting yourself in the feet. That’s dumb and it hurts.”

7. “I know the CRA have won in Tax Court, but they are wrong, and this time we have everything we need to prove them wrong!”

6. “Just ignore them and it will all go away.”

5. “You don’t need to speak to a Tax lawyer, or an accountant. They’re useless. You should never talk to the tax preparer. Just pay us $5,000 and we can make it all go away.”

4. “The Taxman…”

3. “I don’t care what the CRA wants, and how soon they want it. They’re getting what I want to give them, when I’m ready to give it to them, AND they’re going to see that I’m right and they are wrong.”

2. “We need to reduce the amount that you owe, so I’m going to create a T2200 for you, and claim a lot of expenses that your employer has not deducted like mileage, phone, and parking. They’ll never know its not true and on the off-chance that they ask, I have hundreds of parking receipts in my car I can give them. It’s perfectly fine…”

“Don’t even bother opening that envelope… Just throw it out.”

Just missing this list, but barely, is the commonly uttered line; “Quick, transfer the house out of your name before the CRA registers a lien against it!”

In some not-news of the day, the Federal Auditor General has found that the federal government takes months — sometimes years — to make decisions, costing Canadians time and money when it comes to resolving tax disputes.

Audits of the Canada Revenue Agency unveiled exceedingly long delays which fall short of public expectations in an era of advanced technology and instant communications. He noted that departments, like the CRA, assess the time it takes to make decisions against their own internal benchmarks, giving little heed to what the taxpayers they serve might consider a timely decision.

The Canada Revenue Agency often leaves taxpayers waiting for months after they file formal objections to their tax assessments. Appeals officers seeking help from other parts of the agency often wait a year or more.

Over the last 10 fiscal years, the inventory of outstanding cases at the CRA grew by 171%, while the number of employees dedicated to resolving them grew by only 14%, the audit found. The backlog of unresolved cases as of March 31 represented more than $18 billion in federal taxes, the audit said.

But the solution here is not necessarily to grow the public service, but rather a review of the internal policies and how the union impacts the employees ability to do their jobs might need to be reviewed and revamped.

I remember when I started working in the CRA and was “advised” that I should be working 7 accounts per day. I can tell you this, when you begin your day at 7:15, and are completed your work by 8:30 there is only so much coffee you can drink per day. I wound up holding several inventories of accounts, and assisting my teammates in order to keep busy.

Eventually, as rules loosened, I was in charger of a collections / compliance team and we were working upwards of 90 accounts per day each which made such a significant dent in the total amounts coming into collections that they disbanded the team.

Our office had to take on work from other tax offices in order to have enough work for each employee and as stay left, took on other positions outside of collections or took leaves they were not replaced. Our tax office at 50% less staff was resolving 400% more accounts…

But like everything else in life, there was a downturn, contracts up for renegotiation, people moved on (like myself) and now the Auditor General reports there are too many accounts which cannot be handled at current staffing levels.

I get lots of questions related to Credit Bureaus and items which show up well after they have been paid or which do not belong on there at all.

Having worked for Equifax many, many years ago right after I started working for the CRA and they release all the temporary staff for an 11-month period due to budget cuts, I can proudly say that Equifax makes it very easy to communicate with them regarding any such issues.

It is necessary to specify what information is incorrect or what information does not belong to you.

Equifax will verify that information afterwards as part of their investigation.

You will need to include photocopies of all necessary documents and identification to update your personal Credit Report (Ex: receipts, legal documents, 2 photocopies of pieces of valid identification, including proof of current address)

Fax the request to them at:

Fax: (514) 355-8502

Your request will be processed within 10 to 15 business days. After this period has elapsed, a confirmation letter will be sent to your mailing address.

About inTAXicating

This is the blog for inTAXicating.ca

inTAXicating was created by Warren Orlans, a Canadian Tax Consultant and former Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Employee of the Year who worked in the CRA for almost 11-years in their Collections Department.

inTAXicating provides expertise in the area of Tax Liability Solutions and assisting Canadians to understand how the CRA operates.

In order to provide you with the best Tax Solution services possible, we work with Mortgage Brokers. Tax Lawyers, Accountants, Bookkeepers and Insolvency Practitioners to ensure that you get the best experience during a difficult time as you fix your tax problems.